Russia’s arms procurement program to take Syrian experience into account — deputy minister

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has earlier said that the new armament procurement program for 2018-2025 would cost the budget 30 trillion rubles

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MOSCOW, May 24. /TASS/. Experience obtained during the Russian military operation in Syria was taken into account while drafting the state arms procurement program until 2025, Russia’s Deputy Defene Minister Yuri Borisov said Wednesday.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has earlier said that the new armament procurement program for 2018-2025 would cost the budget 30 trillion rubles ($517.5 billion; the current program covering 2011-2020 is worth about 20 trillion rubles, or $345 billion). The program is expected to be approved in the first half of the year, the minister said in early January 2017.

‘We are now at the final stage of drafting the state arms procurement program until 2025. Undoubtedly, while preparing it, military command structures fully studied the experience of combat use of all types of weaponry and equipment. This experience served as a basis for amendments to the planned measures intended to carry out new research and development projects to create weaponry and to modernize the current list of weaponry, military and special equipment," the deputy minister said.

Borisov said in early March that the Russian government was to set aside over 1.4 trillion rubles ($24 billion) for the procurement of combat gear in 2017. Prior to that, he said that 97% of Defense Procurement Program 2016 had been fulfilled.

The financing of the state armament acquisition program in 2011-2020 is about 20 trillion rubles ($345 billion). The defense procurement totaled 1.8 trillion rubles in 2016, 1.8 trillion rubles ($31 billion) in 2015 and 1.6 trillion ($27.4 billion) in 2014.